Now, one Republican senator has declared that he not only agrees—but he already pitched the idea to Denmark.

Sen. Tom Cotton
of Arkansas proposed the idea to the Danish ambassador to the U.S. in August 2018, in a meeting in the senator’s office that had been arranged to discuss the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, according to a spokeswoman for Mr. Cotton.

The ambassador, Lars Gert Lose, was “caught a little off guard,” said the senator’s spokeswoman,
Caroline Tabler.
After Mr. Cotton laid out the reasons why the U.S. would want to purchase Greenland, an ice-covered autonomous Danish territory between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, the conversation “moved on,” Ms. Tabler said.

A spokeswoman for the Danish ambassador declined to comment.

Mr. Cotton also raised the matter with Mr.
Trump
last year, though it is unclear whether that is where the president first got the idea. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the president’s interest in buying Greenland, previously reported that the president has been asking his advisers about possibly purchasing the island since at least last spring.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The two haven’t spoken about the issue since Mr. Cotton first proposed it, Ms. Tabler said.

Mr. Cotton told The Wall Street Journal that he wants the U.S. to buy Greenland as a defensive tactic against China and Russia. “In the last few years China effectively tried to gain a military foothold in Greenland by offering financing for airport construction,“ he said. ”Purchasing it would keep it out of the hands of both the Chinese and the Russians. And it is rich in natural resources with untold economic potential.”

The idea was also raised by the president’s business associates. At a dinner last spring, Mr. Trump said someone had told him at a roundtable—typically attended by major donors and business executives—that Denmark was having financial trouble over its assistance to Greenland, and suggested that he should consider buying the island, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

One Republican familiar with the discussions said the idea had been discussed in Wall Street circles before the president confirmed last week that he was thinking about it.

Mr. Cotton first publicly addressed his interest in buying Greenland at a luncheon in Little Rock, Ark., on Wednesday, where he said anyone who opposed buying Greenland was “blinded by Trump derangement.”

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